Sacred Cynicism

This is one of those weeks. I would love to write about a number of topics, but feel compelled to address the health care situation, and the bill that was just signed into law earlier in the week. Let me admit that I have some strong feeling about this issue. Yet this is not the forum for me to address my feelings. As strong as these feelings might be, there are far more important things that need to be said.

Once again, we seem to be shouting at and past one another in our country, so willing to ignore the feelings and potential friendships just to make our political point. We seem to be so eager to make our point that we look past people who might otherwise be our friends, just to yell at the other side. I do not want to be a part of the battle. It seems we have lost the ability to discuss, to have a conversation, and to have a disagreement with a friend or a brother. Perhaps there is another way. So how do I relate to someone who is on the other side of this issue?

It seems to me that I need to remember that the person on the other side is someone whom I am commanded to love, and one for whom Christ died. If I look close enough I may even see His image in the face of that person who espouses the opposing idea. In everything I think and say, perhaps my attitude and words should reflect this reality.

It would also be good for us to remember that there are people out there who are breathing a little easier because they feel an upcoming sense of security in their particular, unwelcome circumstances. We should at least honor this, and realize that for many, this bill came as good news. Our hearts should always extend to those who have suffered from life. Some will be helped, and we can at least celebrate with them.

If on the other side we hopefully can at least realize that many are justified in their concern. There is the potential for a far more expensive outcome than the planners planned. It would not be the first time such an outcome came to pass, and it is often the pattern. It is not that those who are concerned are greedy, it is just they feel a responsibility to provide for their kids college, and perhaps set aside some for retirement someday. They feel their ability to provide is now threatened, and perhaps I can recognize these concerns are legitimate as well.

Yet there is a far more important reality, that the urgent political concerns often make us forget. While I live in this world, and have concerns in this world, my ultimate citizenship lies elsewhere. There may even be fellow-citizens on the other side of this political divide, and my shouting at the other side may lead me to offend that fellow citizen. My desire is that there are people on both sides of the debate who might seek to become a fellow citizen in heaven, if only I would notice. But I just cannot hear God’s voice over the sound of my own yelling about those people over there. I hope I remember that the group I belong to does not have a donkey as a symbol, or an elephant, but a cross and an empty tomb. Because of that empty tomb I am a part of a new reality that is far greater than any political position.

To be honest I know that I will die someday. In the current system, or under the new plan signed by the President, I will die someday. On that day I will no longer be a part of either health care system, or either political party. In Romans 8:22-25 Paul speaks of the entire creation groaning, waiting for its ultimate redemption. I want to be a a part of that new creation, and my greatest energy should reflect the new creation that is ongoing. If you asked me in private, I would have views about the current political debate, and those opinions are fine to have. However, my hope is not in either party or any political idea, my ultimate hope is in the One who has already overcome death itself. Now that is a plan.